Tritone Barn

The above image is a tritone version of the January 11 blog posting that can be found below. It was created by converting the original color image to black and white, then adding two Pantone colors to the black. By using channels in Photoshop before the conversion, effects such as the swirling wintery sky is brought out in greater detail. Original photo captured on January 9, 2015 when air temperatures were a mere five degrees F.

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Big Country

This sundog was captured with room to spare in a panoramic image as seen from Radio Road, one mile east of Highway 13 northeast of Marion, Iowa at 4:13 PM CST, Friday, January 9, 2015. Air temperature was 5 degrees F, with wind chills at -15 degrees. The image was created from three slightly overlapping shots and blended together in Adobe Bridge.

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Contrail Cornucopia

Sunday morning, January 11, 2015. The entire sky was literally crisscrossed with aircraft contrails. I don't believe I can ever remember there being so many at one time. The above image does not begin to do the scene justice, even though it is a three-image panorama composite. The image looks west from the parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 8:03 AM CST. A half moon can also be seen at left.

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White Acres

Winter in Iowa. Bitterly cold at that. Both images above were captured on Friday afternoon, January 9, 2015. Air temperature was 5 degrees F with -15 wind chills. Top image looks north and shows a rustic barn located at the northwest corner of 35th Avenue and Highway 13 at the north edge of Marion, Iowa. Image captured at 4:21 PM CST. The bottom image also looks north and gives visual to a snowswept farm field along Radio Road, one mile east of Highway 13.

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Into The Frosty Air

Steam rising several hundred feet into the sky from the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, Iowa
on Wednesday, January 7, 2015 is suddenly caught and directed horizontally from a strong northwest wind. With surface air temperatures at -3 degrees F, this created -23 F wind chills. This image, looking northwest, was captured at 3:55 PM CST from the grounds at Echo Hill Presbyterian Church north of Marion, Iowa. The DAEC is Iowa's only nuclear power plant. Distance to the plant from this location was 7.6 miles.

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Frigid Weather & Sundogs

With temperatures dipping to -3 to -4 degrees F with -23 degree wind chills, conditions were prime
for the formation of a sundog on the evening of Wednesday, January 7, 2015. The top image was taken from the front grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 3:47 PM. The middle image looks southwest at 4:07 PM from C Avenue, just south of County Home Road north of Marion. Bottom image is a view of the sundog at 4:16 PM from the entrance of Echo Hill Presbyterian Church on C Avenue north of Marion. The dark streak through the sun on the second and third images is a windblown steam plume from the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, Iowa.

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